Paolo Conte
Concerto al Teatro Sistina (Roma) - 1996

THE REVIEW

It was 1996, an ordinary weekday afternoon, at the time I worked as a builder and after work, I often spent my time near home where there was a bar and next to it a pizza by the slice place.

That day I was with a friend of mine, a big friend who could handle himself.
We were eating a piece of pizza by the slice.
Back then, I was imitating Bukowski and sometimes I would get drunk on weekdays without reason. From the pizzeria's radio, Paolo Conte sang 'Elisir' from 'Una faccia in prestito'
I said: "WOW PAOLO CONTE!" (I only knew "Via con me" "Onda su Onda" and "Genova per noi" by him).
He says: "TONIGHT THERE'S A CONCERT AT SISTINA!" I "SHOULD WE GO?"

..Let's go..

We arrived quite drunk and poorly dressed, jeans and a t-shirt ...but at Sistina, to see Conte (it was the first time), the audience was mostly made up of pompous elderly people, heavily made-up fur-clad old ladies, young men afflicted by swing and spleen, and so on.

We, instead, were two guys from the suburbs, large and rough in appearance, in movements, in voice, but we had MONEY...
He yells at the cashier: "SEATS OR VIP SEATS?" I, standing at the entrance smoking: "VIP SEATS!"
Drunk in the front rows at Conte's première at Sistina
There were celebrities!
There was D'AGOSTINO. All pompous with a mop of hair and a pair of glasses with a red frame, he looked at us with hatred, if he could he would have killed us but he understood that we were not to be messed with (with me no, I'm big but kind and non-violent, the other one even taller and bigger and older than me, well, it was clear he was someone you'd better not mess with.)
He began to make fun of him because he had glasses with a red frame "AHAHAHAH BUT WHO IS THAT? D'AGOSTINO? AHAHAHA LOOK AT THOSE GLASSES!"
D'AGOSTINO looked at us as if to say HOW DARE YOU, DON’T YOU SEE I'M D'AGOSTINO? but "SHUTS UP" (stays silent in Italian ndR).
We sat down, and right next to us was BONCOMPAGNI (who would FALL ASLEEP halfway through the concert) accompanied by a very pretty, PERHAPS UNDERAGE, girl, very refined and delicate in appearance (with glasses herself) and around them photographers.. FLASH...!!!! FLASH...!!! FLASH on BONCOMPAGNI!!!
My friend with his hoarse and gruff voice starts complaining about the photographers and says "WE GET IT, BONCOMPAGNI IS HERE BUT ENOUGH WITH THOSE FLASHES!" The photographers scatter in real time, I feel embarrassed and stay silent and BONCOMPAGNI SHUTS UP.

The concert was absolutely wonderful, I never expected anything like it, later I bought the album "Una faccia in prestito" which I am reviewing here and became a fan of Paolo Conte, going to see his concerts several times again in Rome but also in Pistoia and Faenza ...but that is another story...